Daytona International Speedway
Daytona International Speedway is a superspeedway in
Daytona Beach,
Florida. It is a 2.5 mile
tri-oval race track facility with a seating capacity of 168,000 spectators. It hosts races of motor vehicles of various kinds, including
go-karts,
dirt bikes,
motorcycles,
sports cars, modified pickup trucks, and
stock cars. The facility also includes a 3.56 mile road course and a 180-acre infield, including the 29 acre Lake Lloyd.
Encyclopedia
Daytona International Speedway is a superspeedway in
Daytona Beach,
Florida. It is a 2.5 mile
tri-oval race track facility with a seating capacity of 168,000 spectators. It hosts races of motor vehicles of various kinds, including
go-karts,
dirt bikes,
motorcycles,
sports cars, modified pickup trucks, and
stock cars. The facility also includes a 3.56 mile road course and a 180-acre infield, including the 29 acre Lake Lloyd.
Course history
NASCAR was founded by
William France Sr. at
Daytona Beach, Florida in 1947. The original premiere event in the series was held at the
Daytona Beach Road Course. France began planning a new track for the premiere event in his fledgling series in 1953. On August 16 1954 he signed a contract with city officials to create this new track that would become famous as the Daytona International Speedway. Ground was broken on November 25 1957. The soil underneath the banked corners was dug from the infield of the track, and the large hole in the infield was filled with water and is now known as Lake Lloyd. The speedway opened on February 22 1959 to a crowd of 41,000 people.
The NASCAR Championship's most important race, the Daytona 500, is held annually at Daytona International Speedway. It is a 200-lap, 500 mile stock car race. The list of Daytona 500 winners is very long dating back to the inaugural race in 1959, and includes "The King"
Richard Petty, and
Dale Earnhardt.
NASCAR, the premier stock car organization in the
United States, holds some of its most important races on this track. These include competitions in its
Craftsman Truck Series ,
Busch Series , and
Nextel Cup series. The
Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona is also held at Daytona.
The racing season begins at Daytona starting with the testing sessions. The year's racing begins with Speedweeks, starting with the
24 Hours of Daytona race in the Grand American Sports Car series. Then the racing begins for the
Nextel Cup with the Budweiser Shootout and the Gatorade Duel. The
Craftsman Truck Series begins with the GM Flex Fuel 250. The
Busch Series begins with the Hershey's Kissables 300, and then it is back to the Nextel Cup in "The Great American Race," the Daytona 500. The Nextel Cup also features the
Pepsi 400 in July at Daytona.
Lights were installed in 1998 so that the Pepsi 400 could be held at night. However, the race was delayed until October that year due to thick smoke from wildfires that summer. The Pepsi 400 has been held under lights ever since.
It also contains an attraction called Daytona USA. The winning car from the Daytona 500 is placed in front of the attraction building each year.
See also: List of NASCAR race tracks
An announcement came on September 13, 2006, The Indy Racing League announced that that they will be having a compatibility test on September 26 and 27, 2006. This test will include 6 Indy cars, which will test on a modified version of the Daytona Infield Road Course. The
Indy Racing League is looking for a road course to do preseason testing and this compatibility test will help determine rather or not that it would be a good place to test. There is no mention of a future
IndyCar race at Daytona, but the test is the first step of having one there.
Deaths at the speedway
Numerous persons have been injured fatally during events at the Daytona International Speedway. Beginning with
Marshall Teague in 1959, and most notably
Dale Earnhardt during the 2001 Daytona 500.
See List of Daytona International Speedway fatalitiesCurrent races
...
Records
...
, 2 hrs. 48 min. 55 sec. , February 17, 1980
- NASCAR Nextel Cup Race : Bobby Allison, 2 hrs. 18 min. 21 sec. , July 4, 1980
- NASCAR Busch Series Qualifying: Tommy Houston, 46.299 sec. , 1987
- NASCAR Busch Series Race : Geoffrey Bodine, 1 hr. 54 min. 33 sec. , February 16, 1985
- NASCAR Busch Series Race : Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 1 hr. 37 min. 35 sec. , July 4, 2003
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: Joe Ruttman, 47.984 sec. 2000
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race : Mark Martin, 146.622 mph, February 17, 2006
External links
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